Most disliked racing drivers?

[mustafur]

I think there is a reason why Schumacher gets less slack for what he has done, even though he has gotten plenty is he has a far more diplomatic persona then the likes of Senna where it's his way or the highway approach.

From a likeability factor this quality can make him less unlikable for doing such.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

I see a few people have mentioned Michael Schumacher in here, I would've agreed but for his post-retirement career at Mercedes, he wasn't getting results but you could still see how happy he was to be there just for the love of the sport, it made him a much more likable character imo.

 

[-Fred-]

His post retirement at Mercedes just further cemented the fact that the cars at Benetton and Ferrari were built for him and him only, IMO. It did however show he was human and not a robot like some of us thought in the Ferrari years.

I'll give him that, but not much else.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

I'm surprised PM didn't post here yet, he must be still making his list eh...


Also I dislike very few drivers...but Jimmy Spencer, Eddie Irvine, Jeff Gordon (irrationally) during the 90s.

 

[cnd01]

David Heinemeier-Hansson - more for his social media activism

Not a fan of Juan Montoya either.

*Disclaimer* I don't wish any harm on any race driver

 

[DaGiBUS]

Mark Winterbottom - Mainly because of his Jamie Whincup style ego and the fact he always blames the team or someone else for his mistakes.

 

[mustafur]

I'm surprised PM didn't post here yet, he must be still making his list eh...


Also I dislike very few drivers...but Jimmy Spencer, Eddie Irvine, Jeff Gordon (irrationally) during the 90s.

Same as how I see it, Im not exactly against drivers, I like certain ones but as I've gotten older I have detached any dislike for drivers.

 

[Tak[TEC]]

Paul Morris - Only drove in V8 Supercars since Daddy had money, never had any real amount of skill and would constantly crash into others either out of anger, plain incompetence or revenge for previous races. A few examples below

)

Mark Skaife - People that think Whincup or Winterbottom have a huge ego really need to remember what this guy was like as a racer. He started off in the R32 GTR (which was banned after 1 year I believe for being too far ahead of the rest of the field mainly due to the car being 4WD) then got moved up to arguably the best team at the time with HRT. He would NEVER STOP complaining about every little thing involving other drivers behavior, and yet was known to be one of the most defensive block-happy drivers ever in the V8 Supercar series. He then became one of the worst commentators to listen to as he points out the most obvious things possible while repeating the same phrases over and over again, constantly goes on and on about Red Bull Racing (formerly Triple 8 Racing) even when they are in the middle of the pack or even at the back, instead of focusing his attention to close battles between other racers in the field at the time.

I could say Hamilton and Vettel but enough people have pointed out why they are disliked

 

[RazorSharkz]

I'm surprised PM didn't post here yet, he must be still making his list eh...


Also I dislike very few drivers...but Jimmy Spencer, Eddie Irvine, Jeff Gordon (irrationally) during the 90s.

It's funny too, because without Jeff Gordon I really doubt Nascar drivers would be the celebrities in the states that they are. He had the hollywood good looks to become the face of the sport and the skills to back it up. Post-retirement he seems to have taken well to commentary too.

I notice you said irrationally, I am going to guess you are a Mark Martin fan? It always seemed like Gordon was his achilles heel when it came to the overall championship.

 

[Dolph Drago]

AJ Foyt, the driver you loved to hate.

And the driver who idolized him...Tony Stewart.

I didn't mind Tony at first when he came into the NASCAR Series. Then he became a prick, slapping recorders out of reporter's hands among other things. He mellowed out around the time he won his second championship, and I actually came around to liking him. But then he started to struggle and returned to his a-hole ways. The whole thing about him getting on Logano about blocking for the lead on a restart with only a few laps to go was incredibly hypocritical after the massive crash he caused himself in the Talladega fall race the year before by, you guessed it...blocking!

I won't even go into the whole Kevin Ward Jr. mess. I don't think we'll ever know the full story behind that one.

 

[furryboy96]

I ****ing hate Matt Kenseth.

 

[-Fred-]

Jimmy Spencer

His whole rant about how "these guys bombed Pearl Harbor, remember" when Toyota joined NASCAR is one for the ages.

 

[TiZzla]

Lewis Hamilton.

He thinks he's bigger than the sport, more concerned about being a fashion icon/celebrity than a race driver. Arrogant beyond belief, gives very little respect to other drivers especially his own team mate. Only happy when winning, sulks like a child when he loses.

Any pay driver.

Self explanatory, the fact that the sports top level has competitors who pay for the right to compete is a disgrace. Teams that can't afford to pay for a top class driver should not exist. Same goes for any other category with pay drivers, they are always back markers and are just embarrassing to watch.

 

[Pete05]

Paul Morris - Only drove in V8 Supercars since Daddy had money, never had any real amount of skill and would constantly crash into others either out of anger, plain incompetence or revenge for previous races. A few examples below

)

Mark Skaife - People that think Whincup or Winterbottom have a huge ego really need to remember what this guy was like as a racer. He started off in the R32 GTR (which was banned after 1 year I believe for being too far ahead of the rest of the field mainly due to the car being 4WD) then got moved up to arguably the best team at the time with HRT. He would NEVER STOP complaining about every little thing involving other drivers behavior, and yet was known to be one of the most defensive block-happy drivers ever in the V8 Supercar series. He then became one of the worst commentators to listen to as he points out the most obvious things possible while repeating the same phrases over and over again, constantly goes on and on about Red Bull Racing (formerly Triple 8 Racing) even when they are in the middle of the pack or even at the back, instead of focusing his attention to close battles between other racers in the field at the time.

I could say Hamilton and Vettel but enough people have pointed out why they are disliked

Mate I agree with you about Paul Morris. He's a white gorilla with roughly the same IQ. You don't get voted a "Most Dangerous" by your contemporaries multiple times without earning the 'honor'.

As for your comments about Mark Skaife, you really need to do a little more homework on the guy.
He first came to note in the Ford Laser Series, drove a Nissan Gazelle (Silvia for those outside of AUS) for the factory Nissan team winning the 2-litre ATCC, moved up to the outright class in a R31 Skyline & put the runs on the board against all the Sierras before the R32 GT-R became the car to have. Once that was banned, he had to race a Commodore and well & truly stepped up to the plate winning the title in '94.
You don't win 5 titles by being a muppet. Yes, he could have a whinge but that's what comes with being a perfectionist.

 

[Scaff]

Lewis Hamilton.

He thinks he's bigger than the sport, more concerned about being a fashion icon/celebrity than a race driver. Arrogant beyond belief, gives very little respect to other drivers especially his own team mate. Only happy when winning, sulks like a child when he loses.

Any pay driver.

Self explanatory, the fact that the sports top level has competitors who pay for the right to compete is a disgrace. Teams that can't afford to pay for a top class driver should not exist. Same goes for any other category with pay drivers, they are always back markers and are just embarrassing to watch.

Comes across as a bit of anti Hamilton bias, his bad looser days are well behind him. Give Sebastian Ogier a go for a driver that sulks when he's not only winning, but leading the championship.

In regard to pay drivers, the sport has always had them and they are not always embarrassing back markers, Lauda, Schumacher and Alonso all started as pay drivers and all managed to win a few things.

 

[Carbonox]

Comes across as a bit of anti Hamilton bias, his bad looser days are well behind him. Give Sebastian Ogier a go for a driver that sulks when he's not only winning, but leading the championship.

In regard to pay drivers, the sport has always had them and they are not always embarrassing back markers, Lauda, Schumacher and Alonso all started as pay drivers and all managed to win a few things.

I'm not certain about Lauda, but Schumi and Alonso certainly exhibited talent before entering the sport. I'd say that's what really distinguishes them from drivers like Mazzacane who would never be even considered by any team boss if not for a heap of cash.

 

[ALO14]

I HATE HAMILTON! Arrogant and Sky fawning over him worsens my hatred for him. Celebrations at Monaco were ridiculous and if he was Ricciardo and got his race messed up by his pit crew, got forced wide almost into the wall and saw the car in front cut the corner multiple times he would be moaning for weeks.

I dislike Mattias Ekstrom. If you follow DTM like I do you'll know that this guy moans incessantly.

 

[Ridox2JZGTE]

Mate I agree with you about Paul Morris. He's a white gorilla with roughly the same IQ. You don't get voted a "Most Dangerous" by your contemporaries multiple times without earning the 'honor'.

As for your comments about Mark Skaife, you really need to do a little more homework on the guy.
He first came to note in the Ford Laser Series, drove a Nissan Gazelle (Silvia for those outside of AUS) for the factory Nissan team winning the 2-litre ATCC, moved up to the outright class in a R31 Skyline & put the runs on the board against all the Sierras before the R32 GT-R became the car to have. Once that was banned, he had to race a Commodore and well & truly stepped up to the plate winning the title in '94.
You don't win 5 titles by being a muppet. Yes, he could have a whinge but that's what comes with being a perfectionist.

Mark Skaife, he's okay, great behind the wheel, but human has emotion. I remembered in 2003, he went on a rage against Russell Ingall, the famous on track Skaife shaking his fist and Ingall swerving at him

 

[McLaren]

Comes across as a bit of anti Hamilton bias, his bad looser days are well behind him. Give Sebastian Ogier a go for a driver that sulks when he's not only winning, but leading the championship.

In regard to pay drivers, the sport has always had them and they are not always embarrassing back markers, Lauda, Schumacher and Alonso all started as pay drivers and all managed to win a few things.

Don't really understand the "bigger than the sport" or "arrogant" part, either. I follow him on Social Media, and whilst he is deeply into the fashion/celebrity scene, I've never seen him acting as if that makes him God's gift to F1. Most of his F1 posts are actually more related to thanking the fans & the team for support.

 

[Scaff]

I'm not certain about Lauda, but Schumi and Alonso certainly exhibited talent before entering the sport. I'd say that's what really distinguishes them from drivers like Mazzacane who would never be even considered by any team boss if not for a heap of cash.

I quite agree that some pay drivers are poor, however that was not what @TiZzla was saying, rather it was quite clear from his/her post that all pay drivers were being lumped into the same category.

Now lets be quite honest about, if pay drivers were eliminated from Motorsport the industry would collapse, in particular sports car racing (GT through to LMP).

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I HATE HAMILTON! Arrogant and Sky fawning over him worsens my hatred for him. Celebrations at Monaco were ridiculous and if he was Ricciardo and got his race messed up by his pit crew, got forced wide almost into the wall and saw the car in front cut the corner multiple times he would be moaning for weeks.

That's funny, I don't remember Hamilton moaning after the multiple bad weekends he's had this year. If you watch post-race interviews ir follow him on social media you'll find he usually just says the usual "what's in the past is in the past and I'll move on from here". Never any whinging.

He may have a different taste as most of us, as far as the way he presents himself, and hangs out with some people, who them selves have some questionable personalities, but I don't think that's any reason to dislike the guy or hate him.

 

[Pete05]

Mark Skaife, he's okay, great behind the wheel, but human has emotion. I remembered in 2003, he went on a rage against Russell Ingall, the famous on track Skaife shaking his fist and Ingall swerving at him

I'll tell you now, after being dumped by Ingall that way, I'd have been waiting for Russell to return to pitlane with a large spanner to present as a gift
The funny thing is, they have more respect for eachother now they've basically retired from full time driving than they ever did when competitors.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

His whole rant about how "these guys bombed Pearl Harbor, remember" when Toyota joined NASCAR is one for the ages.

I was more at odds with him on that, and then when he'd claim that certain drivers wrecked him when he just outdrove himself and was out classed. I think Junior beating him at a Bristol night race back in the day comes to mind.

I HATE HAMILTON! Arrogant and Sky fawning over him worsens my hatred for him. Celebrations at Monaco were ridiculous and if he was Ricciardo and got his race messed up by his pit crew, got forced wide almost into the wall and saw the car in front cut the corner multiple times he would be moaning for weeks.

I dislike Mattias Ekstrom. If you follow DTM like I do you'll know that this guy moans incessantly.

His race did get messed up by his crew a year prior... and while not as blatant as RBR doing McLaren screw ups better, it was still a race losing decision. I mean are people that fickle in memory, cause if so it's about as bad as the way you've all described the guy which is a funny irony. Also he sympathized with DR for the very reason it happened to him, along with the streak of bad luck he's had from the start of this season, not to count the fact he hadn't won a race since the U.S. GP last year. I think he's entitled to any celebration he wants, I don't like Beiber myself but who am I to say who he should party with. It's a bit like uptight parents when I see people hating Hamilton the person outside the car because of his success in the car. There are plenty of drivers who hang out with celebs and plenty who have before them. Also Ricc wasn't pushed out, plenty of screen shots on the Monaco thread that show

It's funny too, because without Jeff Gordon I really doubt Nascar drivers would be the celebrities in the states that they are. He had the hollywood good looks to become the face of the sport and the skills to back it up. Post-retirement he seems to have taken well to commentary too.

I notice you said irrationally, I am going to guess you are a Mark Martin fan? It always seemed like Gordon was his achilles heel when it came to the overall championship.

No I was/am a Dale Earnhardt fan, and when he (gordon) took the sport by storm, it was around the time Dale stopped win championships and Jeff started becoming a bigger threat for them. Mark was a good guy, but wasn't ever lucky enough to win, even during his days at JRR.

But yeah Jeff became big time with Hollywood, and then Junior did it even more so, and now you have drivers like Keslowski that show up once in a blue moon on a TV show. It just shows that the perception of drivers being celebs in the States is a far different mind set then when it happens overseas with drivers.

 

[ALO14]

I'm surprised PM didn't post here yet, he must be still making his list eh...


Also I dislike very few drivers...but Jimmy Spencer, Eddie Irvine, Jeff Gordon (irrationally) during the 90s.

What's wrong with Irvine?

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

What's wrong with Irvine?

I never liked his attitude after he temporarily became the last hope of Ferrari to secure a WDC in 98, he seemed quite over joyed that Schumi would be out of the picture, as if he won the championship that season he'd be number 1 from then on. Also he didn't get the nickname irv the swerve for nothing, I had issue with him not fully taking blame in situations he should have and causing wrecks. Similar to how I take issue when Massa does it.

 

[TheElbows]

Surprised that Paul Tracy hasn't been mentioned.

Paul Tracy is my favourite. An incredibly capable driver who isn't afraid to admit he'd lose his temper and do something stupid. Never held his words - said what he thought/meant and was an asshole. But a respectable asshole.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Actually,

I've just remembered I don't like Schuey either.

1990, DTM Season finale, Hockenheim. Schumachers clumsiness and yet almost surgical precision in wiping out Johnny Cecotto at the start of the race, robbing him and BMW of the DTM championship title that year. Git.

3:05 in the Vid...

 

[Eh Team]

His whole rant about how "these guys bombed Pearl Harbor, remember" when Toyota joined NASCAR is one for the ages.

He what now? I was following Nascar quite closely back then and I don't remember anything like that.

A name I'm quite surprised to not see here yet is Brad Keselowski. I was following NNS when he was with JRM and boy what an aggressive arse he was. Up until this year he's had a really brash in the wrong sort of way attitude and has been particularly bargey in making passes, especially in his full time NNS days. And that smile, ugh what a terrible smile, it's like no one told him that smiles are when you lift the corners of your mouth. Look at pretty much any victory lane picture with the trophy of him and you'll see it.

Takuma Sato for being far far too aggressive in making passes, and the furious amount of blocking I've seen him do. Particular occasion for that being in Sao Paulo 2013.

Last one being Denny Hamlin because when he does well my Dad gets very gloaty because that's his favourite.

 

[Carbonox]

Takuma Sato for being far far too aggressive in making passes, and the furious amount of blocking I've seen him do. Particular occasion for that being in Sao Paulo 2013.

To be honest, I remember that Sao Paulo case pretty well, and it wasn't really about his aggression, but geniusness in getting around the series' uptight rules. IndyCar had banned drivers from blocking reactively, but in that case Sato wasn't actually blocking at all, but going straight forward on the curved straightaway with no steering input. Didn't quite pay off, but it was still interesting to watch.

 

[IforceV8]

He what now? I was following Nascar quite closely back then and I don't remember anything like that.

Full story

Spencer slams Toyota entry

By Richard Oliver
San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 01/29/2004 12:00 AM

FORT WORTH — Veteran NASCAR driver Jimmy Spencer, whose nickname on the circuit is "Mr. Excitement," caused a stir during Wednesday's media day at Texas Motor Speedway when he took a swipe at the entry of Toyota, a Japanese firm, into this season's Craftsman Truck Series.

"I was raised with Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler, so I don't know," said Spencer, who drove a Dodge truck to one series victory last year. "Those sons of bitches bombed Pearl Harbor, don't forget. As long as it's good for the economy, I guess it's OK. But I hope that Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge kick their ass."

Spencer, a 46-year-old Pennsylvania native who lives in Cornelius, N.C., made the statement during a question-and-answer session before roughly 100 media members, facility guests and officials. Texas Motor Speedway will host truck series stops on June 11 and Oct. 16.

"We stand by what we said all along, that NASCAR is interested in companies who manufacture their products in the U.S.," said Owen Kearns, Jr., manager of communications for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. "Toyota's trucks are built in Indiana, the engines are made in West Virginia, they employ a lot of American workers in production.

"Jimmy's going to be Jimmy, and he's always going to be Jimmy. He's old-school."

Les Unger, who represents Toyota manufacturing on the Craftsman Truck Series, could not be reached for comment.

Construction is under way on a Toyota production plant in San Antonio. The complex, which will employ 2,000 workers, will produce up to 150,000 Tundra pickups per year.

"What I'm getting at is that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, but times have changed and our sport has changed," Spencer said later when asked about the comment. "I know that people take that stuff out of context, but it doesn't bother me."

The introduction of the company to the truck series, he added, was a positive one. "I think they'll get a lot of support. It's going to help the truck series more than anything. It's going to be good. Our times have changed, and we have to be a world economy."

As for a potential backlash, Spencer shrugged. "It doesn't bother me," he said. "I can handle the Toyota people."

Spencer was suspended for one NASCAR Winston Cup event last year after punching fellow driver Kurt Busch during an altercation following a race. He is one of the few drivers to win on the Winston Cup (now Nextel Cup), Busch Grand National and Craftsman Truck series. Spencer has tentative plans to race in all three series this year, if he lands sponsorships.

He's won two Winston Cup races, at Daytona and Talladega in 1994. Spencer has 12 career Busch triumphs. He had his first victory in the Craftsman Truck Series last year at New Hampshire.